Shell to build massive floating juggernaut

by Mark R

So what do you do if you are Big Oil and need to get a little more oil before all the oil runs out? You build yourself the largest floating object in the seas!

This is the Prelude FLNG, and Shell Petroleum is building it off the coast of Australia, to be completed sometime in 2017. In case you are wondering about the materials that would be needed to build this, then let me start by telling you that it requires 260,000 tons of steel.

In comparison, the Sydney Harbor Bridge needed about one fourth that amount of steel to make. Dang. Just to let you know, the ship has a displacement of 600,000 tons.

Shell designed this vessel to sit above oceanic natural gas fields, and it can refine the gas and cool it down to -260 degrees Fahrenheit for storage. I wonder if other oil companies will be trying to get in on this type of technology.

In other words, we could be looking at an interesting future where Shell, Exxon, and other Big Oil companies will have their little islands floating around the sea. Just to let you know, Shell’s Prelude FLNG can withstand Category 5 cyclones, so you don’t have to worry about natural disasters flipping these things. At least I hope so.